The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-10-28
OF NO BENEFIT.

OF NO BENEFIT. -
| Alcohol Is Not Life-Sustaining Medi-
cine, Does Not Act as a Food, and Does
Not Nourish the Tissues-Facts Well
Established and WelI-Known to Tenn
perance Advocates.
An editorial in the Open Court dem
onstrates how far the Temperance re-
form has outstripped the knowledge,
as well as the compass, of its oppo-
nents. The article in question might
have been true twenty-five years ago,
but now it is greatly behind the times.
The author says: Temperance advo-
Gates miss valuable assertions made in
their favor by specialists, because such
things are not sought for in the scien-
tific writings where they abound" He
certainly can not have read Dr. Rich
ardson's Cantor Lectures, Hargreave's
Alcohol and Science, nor be reader of
DR.. Crother's Journal of Iaebriety, and
DIR. Burnett's Journal of Hereditg, to
say nothing of less pretentious works,
or he would know that Temperance
eeIfOOrbOCo I'll NulIO 1dlIlIlldl DIS IIIlll-
self with the testimony of Michel,
Guslain, Lunier and Lord Shaftesbury.
His statements concerning alcoholic
medication show him to be quite as far
behind the times. He says that Sin
continued fevers, such as typhoid,
whisky, in suitable doses, is generally
regarded by medical practitioners, to
be the DEMONSTRATING medicine. He
evidently has not heard the testimony
of DR.. n. S. Davis, who was chosen to
preside over the late International
Medical Congress because he is con-
fessedly the highest medical authority
in America, and who declares that in
his fifty years practice he has never
'found one case of disease, and no
emergency arising from accident that
he could not treat more successfully
without any form of fermented or dis
distilled liquors than with them. >" This
sentiment he reiterated in his address
on taking the chair at the late Medical
Congress. In his latest published
work, he devotes an entire chapter
to non-alcholic medication, taking
up, among other things, the
case of continued fevers," and
showing how they can be
more successfully treated without alco-
hol than with it. Nor does he stand
alone in this belief; hundreds of Amer
lean physicians are ranging themselves
on his side, while in England the num-
Der OF leading physicians who believe
In non-alcoholic medication is much
greater than upon this side the water
Among them we mention DR.. Benia-
min Ward Richardson, who has proba-
bly, made the most exhaustive study of
the effect of alcohol upon the human
system of any man living; entering
upon the study as firm believer in its
efficacy as the editor of the Open Court
but after twenty-five years of such
investigation, he is as firmly convinced
as DR.. Davis himself of the harmful
ness of alcohol, however administered;
the late DR.. Carpenter, whose physi-
ology is a standard in all medical col
leges; Sir Andrew Clark, physician to
Queen Victoria; Sir Henry Thompson,
Sir William Gull, Dr.. James Edmunds,
and scores of others whose names car
ry weight with physicians on both
sides the Atlantic.
Dir. James Edmunds has proven his
faith by his works, in conducting his
great hospital in London upon strictly
non-alcoholic principles, and the rec
ords show that during the thirteen
years of its existence, the death-rate
under this treatment has averaged four
and half per cent. less than in any
hospital in London, receiving the same
class of patients and treating them
with alcohol. The typhoid fever wards
have been especially noted, as this dis
ease is said to be the one in which al.
coholIcs are absolutely indispensable,
and the result is that the number of
recoveries under non-alcoholic treat
ment is-even greater than the av-
erage per cent.
The same fact is demonstrated by
the records of the National Temperance
Hospital in this city, and also the fact
that the most serious cases of ''col-
lapse after severe operations, as well
as in typhoid fever, make much bet
ter and quicker recovery without al
cohol than with it. The Woman's and
Children's Hospital of Chicago, under
DIR. Thompson, and of Philadelphia,
under DIR. French, demonstrate the
same facts.
These things being so, and they are
undeniable, it is too late to claim ''that
whisky is generally regarded by medi-
cal practitioners to be the life-sustain-
ing medicine. The freight of author
ity is against it, whatever may be true
of the number of physicians holding to
the old theory.
The author asks: ''Where is the war
rant, aside from Zell's Encyclopedia,
for stating that alcohol is not assim-
Hated in the body?" Here are a few
of the authorities:
DR.. Lionel Beale, F. r. S., the emil
nent microscopic declares; "Alcohol
does not act as food, it does not nour-
ish the tissues; it may diminish waste
by altering the constituents and chem
zeal properties of the fluids and solids.
1t cuts short the life of rapid-growing
cells, or causes them to live more
slowly That is, it cannot repair or
build up tissues, and being destitute Of
nitrogen, it can not increase nerve
force. All it can do is to retard
changes in the cells, which really
amounts simply to hindering vital
changes and keeping efete matter in
the system.